Staff Commentary

Conundrum is defined by Webster's New World College Dictionary as a puzzling question or problem. The exploding autonomous vehicle phenomenon is presenting the automobile industry with a thicket of conundrums.... Read More »

Could the smartphone -- the source of so many deadly driving distractions -- prove to be an auto safety device? That question has been in my head ever since I rode along on a Honda demonstration of a safety system that integrates connected-car and autonomous-driving technologies.... Read More »

I wouldn't be recalling these events had Bob Nardelli not attempted to rewrite history last week in a LinkedIn blog titled "What I Learned Leading a Company Like Chrysler Through Bankruptcy -- and Revitalization."... Read More »

Car companies don't usually get sucked into philosophical debates, but right now they're facing a big, thorny question: how the self-driving cars of the future will decide who will live and who will die.... Read More »

By the numbers, the U.S. auto industry just had its best spring selling season in a decade. But that's not the whole story. rather misleading. June 2015 was actually far better than June 2005. In June 2015, automakers were healthy and scrambling to keep up with demand for their most profitable vehicles. In June 2005, they were overflowing with inventory nobody wanted and desperate to get rid of it at any cost.... Read More »

I have always been impressed at how the auto industry is full of people with passion. I don't mean folks who like their jobs. I mean individuals who adore cars, who absolutely love what they do. And the car biz is full of people who think beyond the task at hand.... Read More »

Advanced electronics have transformed every aspect of today's automobile. They are cleaner, faster, safer, more efficient and more capable. But here's the downside: As light vehicles age, repairs could get more difficult and expensive -- especially as high-quality electronic replacement parts become harder to obtain.... Read More »

After running into title snags and other glitches in assuming an existing lease on a Chevrolet Volt, Automotive News' James B. Treece sees opportunity for dealerships in smoothing lease swaps for consumers. Here is his story.... Read More »

Some gibberish has crept into the way U.S. auto sales are reported each month. It revolves around one word: "Expectations." We saw this in abundance last week, as the U.S. industry chalked up 1.63 million light-vehicle sales.... Read More »

Do women pay more than men for the same cars? That's the question NBC's "Today" show posed last week. It turns out that the dealerships in question fared rather well in NBC's investigation, but there is still work to do.... Read More »

The flawed analyses of Google's accident record illustrated the bar that the self-driving car will need to cross to be accepted. It must not only be safer than human drivers, but unquestionably safe.... Read More »

The auto industry has an increasingly bipolar view of autonomous vehicles. The basic question is whether to go all in or install limited doses of self-driving technology. Let's look at the two poles.... Read More »

When it unveils its first batteries for homes and businesses this week, Tesla Motors will no longer be a car company. It will be an energy company, competing against electric utilities just as it has gone after the car market.... Read More »

Perhaps Sergio Marchionne is banking on a loss of institutional memory at General Motors. That's the only way I can see that he might expect GM to consider buying Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.... Read More »

Kathy Winter, Delphi's vice president of advanced engineering and software service, declined to predict when autonomous cars would be ready for the market. But she did say it'll probably be regulatory and insurance issues - not the readiness of the technology - that slows the rollout of autonomous cars.... Read More »

Ford Motor Co. seems to have its formula for creating auto show buzz down pat. Let a major competitor talk about an upcoming important new vehicle for months, even years, then swoop in with a surprise just as that competitor is finally unveiling that vehicle.... Read More »